Ballad
by AGoldenCharm
Summary: Short story about the missing scene from the Ballad episode.  Non-canon after a certain point .


**A/N: Took a quick break from _A New Chapter _to write this short story. Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Tina doesn't really have issues with people. She can generally accept them for whatever crazy attribute they possess, mostly because she isn't really considered "normal" herself. She doesn't just _tolerate_ things, she embraces them, because that's what she's been taught to do. And it's kind of a _thing_, what with her style and all, for her to be socially different- so she gets that she's supposed to be cool with whatever people throw at her. But there's always that _one thing_ and right now, it's more prominent than ever.

Tardiness. She doesn't really know what it is about people not having any sense of punctuality, but it drives her certifiably insane. And that's why she is currently tapping her foot at unreasonable speeds against the floor of the choir room. Because it isn't as if she _chose_ her partner. If she could have picked, she would have picked Artie or something because she hangs around him all the time, anyway. But they _didn't_ get to pick because of Mr. Schue's stupid _fate_ nonsense and now all she can do is wait. Wait for a _football player_ with no respect for time and _people_ to show up because by now, she checks the clock on the wall, it is already ten minutes past the time they were supposed to meet.

What she really doesn't understand is that they had planned to meet after school. How could he be late to the choir room when he was already _at_ school? This is why when Mike Chang finally rushes into the room, she is ready to burst.

"You're-"

"I know I'm late," he cuts her off, "and I'm sorry. I had to convince Coach Tanaka to let me skip practice today."

"You... you have practice? Then why did you agree to meet now?"

He shrugs, "I just figured we'd go by your schedule. Sorry I'm not making a very good first impression."

"It's hardly a first impression," she sniffs disdainfully. "You've been in the glee club for a couple months already."

"Oh?" He raises an eyebrow, clearly amused. "And I bet you can't tell me... what I do outside of school."

"That's easy," she rolls her eyes. "Football."

"Wrong," he says dramatically, taking a seat on a swivel chair by the piano. "What about...my favorite color?"

Tina takes a seat on the piano bench, narrowing her eyes. "How is that relevant?"

"It's important to _me_," he folds his arms. "And my favorite flavor of ice cream?"

"Irrelevant," she interjects firmly again, leaning against the piano as she takes in his unbuttoned red plaid shirt with a tight white shirt underneath and skinny jeans. He had hung his varsity jacket on the chair and dropped his backpack by the piano and was now focusing one hundred percent of his attention on her and it's a bit of unnerving, to be honest.

"Well, I'm just trying to prove a point," he shrugs. "That this _is_ a first impression because you don't really _know_ me. Hell, you called me 'other asian' when you pulled my name yesterday."

Tina looks down at her hands, "It was just a joke."

He laughs and it's a sweet, hearty laugh. "I'm not offended or anything. I'm just saying. It's like we're meeting for the first time, you know? It's like, earth-shattering stuff."

"Now you're just being melodramatic."

He ignores her and glides over to the piano bench in his swivel chair, sticking his hand out for her. "I'm Mike Chang. My passion for dance outstrips my interest in football by light years. My favorite color is blue and my favorite flavor of ice cream is moose tracks."

She takes his hand, bewildered, and shakes it. He is holding tight onto her hand, as if with resolution. "I'm Tina Cohen-Chang," she says slowly, playing along. "My passion for singing stems from a lifelong desire to star in a Broadway musical. My favorite color is red, not black, despite the way I dress, and my favorite ice cream flavor is strawberry." She releases her hand, and the webs between her fingers are still kind of red from his grip. "Do we know each other now?" She asks, amused.

"It's a step," he says very seriously, spinning around once in his chair.

"Okay... Anyway, I was hoping we could make a song choice for our ballad by the end of today. I printed out a bunch of classic ballads that I thought would be fun to try, and-"

"You printed them all out?"

"Yes," she says defensively, hugging the sheet music to her chest. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing," he frowns. "It's just that I didn't do anything to help prepare."

"You didn't have to," she says swiftly, handing him the copies. "Just check these out and let me know what you think."

"I don't really know much about ballads," he admits sheepishly, thumbing through the pages. "You should pick."

She shrugs, "Well, it depends on what kind of emotion we want to convey to each other, you know? All ballads are different." He is now staring at her more intently than ever and she subconsciously backs up a little in the chair.

"We should do one that showcases your voice," he says firmly. "I'm not much of a singer."

"I doubt that."

"Seriously," he shakes his head. "I don't even want to perform this in front of everyone. I'm perfectly fine with singing background vocals for the rest of my life."

She rolls her eyes, "That's not fair. The only way to get better is to challenge yourself." She knows this for a fact because if there's one thing Tina is proud of, it's her insane determination. She has spent countless hours in her own room, vocalizing and harmonizing to songs on her iTunes. She has sat on her bed for an entire night, determined to hit a high note that she had never hit before, and by the time midnight had rolled around, she had managed it (her math homework, on the other hand, went sorely neglected).

"Maybe," he says dubiously, not convinced. "Are we going to be dancing?"

"Nothing serious," she replies. "Our movements will be synchronized, but I wouldn't really call it dancing."

She can tell that he is disappointed to hear this.

"I didn't know you liked dancing _that _much," she comments, tucking a stray hair behind her ear.

"I didn't either. But then I figured, after spending two straight hours dancing to songs on my iPod in my room each weekend, that it was a slight possibility."

She laughs, not expecting this type of wit from someone like Mike. Which sort of verified his point about them not knowing each other at all. "Yup. That would do it."

"So I was kind of hoping you could sing a solo and I could just do background vocals for you," he gives her a weak smile.

"I guess we can try that." She is secretly kind of happy because she doesn't get solos too often and this could be her chance to prove to Mr. Schue that she has more potential than he thinks.

"Great," Mike places a hand on her shoulder and she makes a small movement to see where his hand lands. "So what do _you_ want to sing?"

She already knows the answer, mostly because she's been listening to the same song for the past two weeks. "_I Look To You_," she replies, handing him the sheet music for it.

He studies it for a second and looks back up at her, "Sounds good. Will you sing it for me?"

"I- right now?"

"Of course," he blinks, as if the answer is obvious. He leans back in his chair. "I think it would be beneficial for both of us to get a feeling of the sound, you know?"

"I guess," Tina says, slightly taken aback. She plunks down a couple of the piano keys a little nervously, "Do I- do I have to sing it for you now?"

"Why, are you nervous?"

"_No_," she insists, snapping a little. Except she kind of is, especially because of what he had said earlier about first impressions. What if he doesn't like her voice when he hears it? What if that's how he'll end up judging her for the rest of their high school experience?

He smiles, "You don't have to be nervous."

"I said I'm not."

"Okay," he raises an eyebrow, as if it isn't okay because he can totally tell that she's lying through her teeth. "Then sing."

It's a challenge. And she knows it is from the little glint in his eye and she kind of wants to punch him in the stomach although, she muses as she stares at his midriff area, she would probably break her own fist by doing so. He _is_ a football player after all, and that shirt he was wearing left little to the imagination, she observed as she noticed the way it hugs his torso.

"You're staring."

Mike breaks her out of her reverie and she blushes, "Was not."

"Okay."

She still kind of wants to punch him.

* * *

Tina is a little upset when he arrives in the choir room early because she kind of wants to despise him for being a smartass the day before.

"You gonna sing for me today?" He grins, taking his seat on the swivel chair again, except in the wrong direction. He rests his chin on the chair.

"Don't be so smug," she scoffs. "You have to sing, too."

"You first," he folds his arms. "How about I join in once I get a feel for the music?"

"Fine."

_As I lay me down  
Heaven hear me now  
I'm lost without a cause  
After giving it my all_

_Winter storms have come  
And darkened my sun  
After all that I've been through  
Who on earth can I turn to?_

He joins in at this point, singing a simple yet actually rather lovely harmony part. She turns away from him swiftly and belts out the chorus.  
_  
I look to you,  
I look to you  
After all my strength is gone  
In you I can be strong  
I look to you,  
I look to you  
And when melodies are gone In you I hear a song  
I look to you_

She is very vaguely aware that he is watching her with almost too much attentiveness. And it's simultaneously flattering and creepy but she finishes the song, anyway, turning to glare at him.

"What do you mean you can't sing? It takes a lot more talent to be able to harmonize than to sing a solo," she argues.

"But that's exactly what I mean," he shrugs, wheeling over to where she stood by the piano. "I don't have the vocal power to sing a solo. I have a good sense of pitch, though. It sounds good," he adds with a smile. "Your part. You sound incredible."

She wants to roll her eyes but her body decides that it's a much better idea to flush red. "Thanks," she says softly.

"You're very welcome," he beams in a kind of goofy manner that makes her want to laugh. "Hey, we should go out for some coffee. As a reward for our hard work."

Tina laughs, "We went through the song _once_!"

"And it already sounds amazing. So I think that's good enough of a reason to celebrate. Come on, I'll drive us down to the coffee shop and then I can send you home."

It's hard to say no, Tina realizes, when he gives her an eager grin and all she can do is laugh and shoulder her backpack, following him out of the choir room and into the parking lot.

His car is a small Chevy Malibu that kind of fits his personality, in a way, simply because it's not showy and very neat and clean-cut. She climbs into the passenger seat next to him and kind of wonders if this is what jocks do. Bring girls out for coffee to sort of lead them on or even pretend there's some kind of friendship between them even though there really isn't. Not that she cares. Even though her relationship with Artie had fallen through big time last month when he decided not to talk to her anymore because of her faked stutter, she still feels like she isn't single. She tries not to notice when he brushes by her arm when he wraps his arm around the passenger seat to get a better look behind them as he backs out of his spot.

"I think it's Mocha Monday today," he comments breezily.

"Great," Tina manages a smile as they pull into the lot of the coffee shop and scramble out of the car.

The coffee shop is packed, and as they order- a hazelnut mocha for him and a mint mocha for her, she can't help but glance at him every once in a while. Half the time, he's staring straight ahead, a small smile playing on his lips, and the other half of the time, he catches her staring and offers her a bright expression that is somehow both dorky and adorable.

They cradle their drinks in their hands as they manage to find a tiny table in the corner where the seats are so close together that they're practically overlapping. They sit, and their knees touch, especially since his legs are so long.

"So," he pipes up, "in the spirit of getting to know each other better, I have a question for you."

"Okay," she agrees, taking a sip of her drink.

"Who would you say is your best friend?"

She has to think about this for a second, especially since he looks like he's genuinely interested, which she doesn't really understand. At one point, she would have said Artie. Mostly because even before they had become...romantically involved, they hung around each other all the time. She wheeled him to classes most days, and they ate lunch together as far away from the jocks as possible to avoid getting slushied after lunch. But after their whole issue, they hadn't been talking much and it didn't really feel like they were best friends anymore. Maybe now she should say Mercedes, since she was technically Tina's best girl friend. But she and Mercedes weren't exactly close enough to be able to call themselves _best_ friends.

"I guess Artie," she finally decides, looking at him over her coffee.

"Really? I thought- aren't you guys.. dating?"

And to this, she doesn't actually really have an answer, either. Sure, they had gone on a date in their wheelchairs, speeding after each other down the hallways at school, and sure, they had kissed afterward, but he is still mad at her about the whole stuttering thing and they haven't really talked in quite some time now. In fact, last time she had walked over to his locker to wheel him to his math class, he had sped away in a blink of an eye.

"I don't...think we're dating," Tina says slowly. "He's mad at me, at least."

"Why?" He looks extremely curious, and she can't help but feel a little disconcerted by his interest.

"Because I told him that I faked my stutter. Didn't you notice in glee club? I've stopped stuttering because it wasn't _real_."

He shakes his head and she's all ready to feel offended until he replies, "You don't talk much in glee club. And when you sing, you_ never _have one. It never occurred to me that you had a stuttering problem."

She opens her mouth to retort something but she closes it again when she realized how true his words are. She _doesn't_ ever really talk during glee- who can, anyway, what with Rachel blabbering non-stop - and the only people who ever really noticed her stutter were people she hung around a lot, like Artie and Mercedes.

"Okay," Tina relents. "Then who's _your_ best friend?"

"Matt," he says immediately, as if the answer is totally automatic. "I've known him since middle school when he moved here. He got me into football."

"Clearly not enough," she comments, "seeing as how you enjoy dancing more than you enjoy football."

He holds out his arms in defeat, "You got me. Besides, it was me that convinced Puck and Matt to join the glee club. I had to come up with a cover story though," he adds. "Got Puck to join because of Quinn and Matt owes me a favor, anyway."

"Conniving," she arches an eyebrow, laughing. "Although I had no idea it was your idea."

He shrugs. "There's a lot you don't know about me."

* * *

She is surprised to discover that Mike Chang is actually really easy to hang around. Actually, her first surprise was that he had started regularly inviting her out after their ballad rehearsals, whether it was out to coffee or ice cream or whatever. At one point, he had brought her to the bookstore in order to show her this huge book on dancing that he had eagerly pulled out of the shelves, opening it on the floor for her to see. It was actually really incredible, what with the beautiful photography and the various styles of dance it showcased. And the way he's out-of-his-mind excited about makes her want to laugh.

He's rescheduled their rehearsals to start after football practice, so she waits in the school library for an hour and a half, finishing up homework while he practices. And then he goes up to meet her and his hair is usually wet from the showers and he's usually red-faced from the exercise, but she's ashamed to admit that he actually smells kind of nice each time he brings her down to the choir room.

Actually, there are a lot of things that she's kind of ashamed to admit nowadays. Like that sometimes she catches him staring at her when she sings the toughest verse of the ballad and she secretly likes knowing that he's paying attention to her. And he does. A lot.

There are also a lot of things she's come to learn about Mike Chang, which is a little annoying because he was so right about them not knowing each other at all at the beginning of the assignment. Like the fact that he is a bit of an overachiever, which she first notices when she suggests a routine for them to do during their ballad.

"I don't know," he had remarked thoughtfully. "I feel like it'd be more convincing if we did this facing each other."

"What do you mean?"

"Here," he reached for her hand and pulled her toward him so that their bodies were unreasonably close together. She craned her neck upwards to be able to look him in the eye. "And then when we sway to the side, we go at the same time and it looks much more synchronized."

"Yeah but this means we have to dance _with_ each other more instead of it just being side by side."

"So?"

"It'll just be more work," she shrugged

"Doesn't matter," he said firmly. "This way, it'll be more like a ballad, you know?"

And she had wondered faintly if he had noticed that his hand was still wrapped tightly around hers as they ran through the routine once more.

* * *

Tina first realizes that her friendship with Artie is slowly on its way to crumbling to pieces as well when he isn't at the movie trip that she, Mercedes, and Kurt take once a month.

"Where's Artie?" She asks as she arrives at the theater and Mercedes and Kurt are waiting with her ticket.

"He... didn't want to come," Mercedes replies hesitantly, as if tip-toeing through a mine field.

"Why not?"

"He says he'd rather stay at home and play video games," Kurt says quietly, placing a hand on Tina's shoulder. "It's okay, though. We don't need him."

Except she kind of does need him. Even if it's only as a friend.

* * *

She calls him when she gets home. He answers after the last possible ring.

"Artie?" She says tentatively when there's no sound over the phone.

"What?"

"Are we... can we not be..."

"I don't really think I want to be talking to you right now," he says slowly.

There is a dial tone, signaling his abrupt end to the call and she stares at her phone, tears welling up in her eyes because her self-proclaimed best friend didn't really feel the same way anymore.

* * *

She is late to the next day's rehearsal. Mostly because she didn't spend the afternoon in the library as usual. Instead, she had chosen to sit in the girls' bathroom, crying. Mostly because she had tried to reconcile with Artie at his locker that morning and he would hear none of it because he was still furious at her.

When Tina finally checks her phone, realizing that she is a good ten minutes late to rehearsal, she dashes out of the restroom, wiping her tears on her dress sleeve, hoping that her eyes aren't too red. She swings the door open.

"It's about ti- Tina? Are you okay?"

Which means her eyes _are_ too red. And her face is probably doing the blotchy thing that makes her pale face look like it's been attacked by bees.

"I'm fine," she croaks unconvincingly, dropping her backpack on the floor and approaching him.

"I don't think so," he hurries over to her, his voice heavy with concern. "What's wrong?"

She is only kind of aware of the fact that he's rubbing her arm gently. "_Nothing_."

"Is it Artie?"

How he even manages to guess that is completely beyond her but she is also kind of touched because lately he's been doing that a lot. Understanding her and everything.

She nods meekly and he immediately sits her down on the piano bench, wrapping one arm around her shoulders. "What did he do?"

It's kind of gratifying to her that he automatically assumes that _Artie_ did something even though Artie has been tacking the blame on her this entire time. It's also refreshing, mostly because she's tired of apologizing since she has no idea how to take back four years of stuttering.

"He doesn't want anything to do with me anymore."

"What? Why not? Because of the stuttering thing?" His voice is kind of fierce and disbelieving.

"Yeah." She can feel the tears again- her nose is stinging, which is usually a sign that she's ready to open the flood gates up. And sure enough, the tears begin to fall. "I don't know what to do, Mike. Artie and I have been friends for so long."

"Maybe you two need a break. Maybe then he'll come to his senses and you two will be okay again," he suggests gently, stroking her hair as she cries.

She is feeling kind of stupid and embarrassed, since she's bawling into Mike Chang's shoulder, but he is good about it.

Mike is now humming softly, and it's a weird noise but it's also extremely comforting and it makes her want to sink into his arms and wait until the tears subside. So she does.

* * *

They're scheduled to perform their ballad on Friday. Seeing as how it's already Thursday, Tina starts to panic a little. Not because she or Mike are awful or anything- quite the contrary, since they're actually sounding kind of fantastic lately. It's more that she's afraid she'll catch Artie's glance during the performance and break down crying again.

She walks into the choir room slowly, where Mike is already waiting. He didn't have practice that day, so they had pre-arranged to meet in the choir room right after school.

"Would you be offended if I asked Mr. Schue if we could perform for just him?" She is feeling crappy again today, and she wonders if it shows.

"Just him? You mean instead of in front of the whole club?" Mike asks, approaching her and- yup, he's running his fingers through her hair again which means she _is_ appearing like a mopey brat.

"Yeah."

He doesn't ask why. "I wouldn't be offended at all. It'd actually be kind of good for me," he smiles. "Not sure if I'm ready to show off my singing yet."

She is grateful for his agreement. Grateful for Mike in general, because for a jock, he's been an incredible friend. Scratch that, for _anyone_, he's been an incredible friend. "Thanks, Mike."

"No problem," he hesitates, his hand stopping midway through her hair.

And the moment gets kind of hazy because she is looking up at him and he is looking down at her and she can almost feel him breathing on her forehead. She is possessed with the most insane urgency to kiss him, mostly because she's long since noticed how soft and inviting his lips look, and she's long since wondered what he tastes like, what he feels like. She wants to so badly but she's also consumed with the reminder that he'd probably sooner jump in front of a train than be romantically involved with her.

But he surprises both of them when he swoops down and whispers in her ear, and some part of her crazy mind expects him to kiss her but instead: "Can I take you out on a date sometime?"

And her heart swells anyway because he is so overwhelmingly chivalrous and gentlemanly and that's when she realizes that Mike Chang is more than just an incredible friend. Much, _much_ more.

* * *

**A/N: So what did you think? Let me know!**


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